I received this article in a newsletter from one of the beacon providers that i am subscribed to.

This obviously intrigued me enough to see how Gamification and a beacon could work together. Here's a brief summary for those that do not want to read the full article there.

In a typical conference, it is usually difficult to influence your attendees to network with each other but the organiser of this event using the power of proximity and gamification together, managed to have 60% of its attendees network like crazy.

First, they beaconized the venue and added proximity-enabled features to their app. Beacons triggered invitations to a premium exhibitor stand nearby, enabled exchanging contact details between participants (either exhibitors or attendees), and marking some important places. For each stand visited and contact passed, as well as for checking in or discovering the venue, attendees would get points, called iCOINs. Once an attendee collected enough iCOINs, he or she could exchange them for gadgets or souvenirs.

The resuilt? The event organizer observed 3000 check-ins during the event. 60% of app users exchanged their contacts with at least 5 other visitors and visited all (around 40) premium exhibitors’ stands. Apparently, the interest in beacon-triggered invitations was so immense, that on day two, exhibitors who didn’t have beacons were requesting for one, because people kept asking for them all the time.

So which gamification concepts was applied here?

Curiosity, Social Engagement and Accomplishments are tied very well together here. The curiousity of hunting for these beacon spots that will surprise them with receiving an invitation to either a premium booth or other participants. I believe it could be random that could make it more fun. The points are then awarded only after a real social engagement. With different prizes available, it will also create a level of competition between participants to engage with as many as possible in order to exchange their hard-earned points for a better prize, as it states "gadgets" or "souvenirs".

As a regular networker myself, i know that with such a gamification in place, it will motivate me to get to know "just 1 more" instead of calling it a day. And if they tiered their rewards correctly like having a different type of prize for a difference of 1 more interaction, i would probably get hooked into just going all the way to the top!